Who has built their own tumbler

I am going to build one using an old BBQ rotisserie . Cut two metal plates to reenforce a 5 gallon plastic pain,top and bottom. Attach with nuts and bolts. Cut square holes to run the rotisserie rod through. Make a plywood stand so the pail is at 45 degs. Plug in . Should work. I'm sure someone on here will have some improvements.
 
smellofspentcasings said:
I am going to build one using an old BBQ rotisserie . Cut two metal plates to reenforce a 5 gallon plastic pain,top and bottom. Attach with nuts and bolts. Cut square holes to run the rotisserie rod through. Make a plywood stand so the pail is at 45 degs. Plug in . Should work. I'm sure someone on here will have some improvements.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong but I think the BBQ rotisserie turns too slow. Your brass and media will just sit at the bottom of the bucket. Also if you spin too fast your brass and media would stick to the walls with g-force and just go round and round. You have to find a happy medium speed so everything tumbles.
 
I've built one. Used a Coleman insulated water jug thing as a container, thread rod, cheap sealed bearings from Princess Auto, and a 1/4hp electric motor. Works great.
 
This is the tumbler that I have built. Works great, I do roughly 500-700 pistol brass at one time for a couple hours and they come out REALLY SHINEY!!!
I went with a verticle design to keep the footprint small as you can see I don't have alot of room
20131212_100717.jpg
 
The thing I am struggling with is what to use as a vessel/media holder. I have tried the coleman thing, but it is now leaking very badly and cannot get it to seal. Large diameter piping seems to be really, really, expensive. Any other ideas?
 
I built one using a 1/4 horse motor like the one above. But I used a 5 gallon water bottle with a handle. But I fount it was way to fast and dented the mouth of some of my cases.
This is what I am using now.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-1-4-q...xer-91907.html

There is a 20% coupon that can be used on top if the sale price.

Can't beat it $112.00

The 1/4 horse motor from my first one cost more.
 
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macsailer said:
The thing I am struggling with is what to use as a vessel/media holder. I have tried the coleman thing, but it is now leaking very badly and cannot get it to seal. Large diameter piping seems to be really, really, expensive. Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

I haven't had issues with mine - maybe just hit up a thrift store and pick up another for cheap?
 
rumrunner64 said:
I built one using a 1/4 horse motor like the one above. But I used a 5 gallon water bottle with a handle. But I fount it was way to fast and dented the mouth of some of my cases.
This is what I am using now.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-1-4-q...xer-91907.html

There is a 20% coupon that can be used on top if the sale price.

Can't beat it $112.00

The 1/4 horse motor from my first one cost more.
Click to expand...

Your link is broken. I believe you are referring to this:
http://w w w.harborfreight.com/1-1-4-quarter-cubic-ft-compact-cement-mixer-91907.html

Just fix the spaces in the "www".

As you can see, it is the compact cement mixer. That is some serious capacity!

Also, if you look around, you will find 25% off coupons for HF too, bringing the price down further. The big catch is that I don't think there are any HF stores in Canada. I live 5 km from the Washington border, but the nearest HF (a recent thing) is in Spokane, about 6 hours round-trip. That makes it a pretty expensive tumbler. Of course, your situation might be very different.

HF also sells actual tumblers and vibratory polishers.

I like nevanevan's home built machine. I imagine if you found a sturdy chemical shipping bottle it would also work well. They make these heavy wall high density polyethylene bottles specifically for shipping hazardous fine chemicals - they often have wide mouths, excellent lids, are of course completely fluid-tight, and are shockingly tough.

I know a fellow who made a kind of mill (for minerals) using PVC pipe as the tumbling container, capped at one end. It was set at a slight angle so the contents don't run out the open end (eg. the open end is tilted up). It rested on four small tires/wheels, two of which were attached by bicycle chain to an old motor. The bicycle sprockets (mounted to some old lumber) provided gearing. The rubber wheels (might have been go-cart or hand truck wheels) turned the pipe entirely by friction, while also supporting the pipe. I don't think this fellow spent a single dollar, as it was all junk. It worked! I imagine it could work to tumble a lot of cases too.

Best Regards, G
 
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